Meenakshi Mohapatro1, Sadasiba Padhy2, Manoj Kumar Patro3, Rajesh Kumar Sethi4
BACKGROUND
Anaemia is the most common symptom in the developing countries including India where under nutrition is prevalent besides haemoglobinopathy is also prevalent in this geographic region. Haemoglobinopathies especially thalassaemia minor present in the paediatric age group with microcytic hypochromic anaemia and hence often misdiagnosed and treated wrongly as iron deficiency anaemia. Simpler cost-effective techniques like study of haematological indices by performing Complete Blood Count (CBC) and in suspicious cases haemoglobin electrophoresis the exact diagnosis can be established at the earliest.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Under aseptic condition, 5 mL of blood collected in K2EDTA Vacutainer. One part was analysed in cell count analyser. Other part was used to prepare hemolysate and subsequently gel electrophoresis.
RESULTS
Gel Electrophoresis is done in 210 cases of microcytic hypochromic anaemia which is detected by haemogram assay, 21% of cases were diagnosed to be thalassaemia and 79% were iron deficiency anaemia.
CONCLUSION
Iron-Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) is the commonest cause of microcytic hypochromic anaemia, the second being thalassaemia. Differential diagnosis is based on complete haemogram and peripheral smear. Serum iron profile study and haemoglobin electrophoresis are must for confirmation of diagnosis.
